Sound: Two years after the Death Cult Demo (featuring Tom Warrior on vocals), Coroner, one of the most famous Technical Thrash Metal bands, signed with Noise Records and released the first album of their short but brilliant career. After a short but not memorable intro, the hostilities begin with Reborn Through Hate and When Angels Cry, two thrash metal jewels, then comes Nosferatu, one of the most epic and beautiful instrumental I ever heard, period. The rest of the album sounds like the two first songs: effective and technical. The intro of Totentanz is a 'cover' of a classical guitar song by Robert de Visйe, a musician of the court of French King Louis XIV!!
This album means also the discover of Tommy T. Baron, one of the best Thrash Metal guitarists and Ron Royce, a fantastic but underrated bass player. // 9
Lyrics and Singing: I love Ron's Royce vocals which sounds, in my opinion, like a mix of Tom Warrior from Celtic Frost and the first death metal singers. The lyrics are mainly about... death!!! Yeah, it's not as innovating as Coroner's music but who cares, it's Metal, period. // 7
Impression: Even if this album is not their best, it remains in my heart my favorite for many reasons. The first one is the musicians' talent: this album proves that Thrash Metal does not only mean bad and Slayer-like solos (I love Slayer but I hate their so-called solos), Tommy T. Baron delivers amazing solos and merciless riffs. The second one is the efficiency of songs which are speed, violent and paradoxically catchy. And the last reason is the instrumental Nosferatu, this album deserves to be bought just for this song.
The only weakness of this album is two songs, Suicide Command and Coma, which I found under the (high) level of the rest of the album. Best songs: Nosferatu, Reborn Through Hate, Spiral Dreams, Totentanz, When Angels Die and the eponymous song. // 9
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